Gundam SEED Fate
by Mr. Roberts
Summary: It is Year 78 of the Cosmic Era and the peace following the 2nd Bloody Valentine War is enjoyed by all. But with the arrival of a new and ancient enemy, the heroes of the past will be called to arms once again.


I guess this is needed in every story so here goes: As a disclaimer, I do not own the rights to Gundam SEED, Gundam SEED Destiny, or any of the characters contained therein. This is purely a work of fan fiction of my own devising.

**Dramatis Personae:**

Kira Yamato, 22: ZAFT White Coat, CO FAITH Mobile Force 1

Lacus Clyne, 22: Chairwoman of PLANT

Yzak Joule, 23: PLANT Councilman

Dearka Elsman, 23: PLANT Councilman

Athrun Zala, 22: ZAFT White Coat, CO FAITH Mobile Force 2

Shinn Asuka, 20: ZAFT Black Coat, XO FAITH Mobile Force 2

Lunamaria Hawke, 21: ZAFT Black Coat, XO FAITH Mobile Force 1

Cagalli Yula Atha. 22: Representative of the United Emirates of Orb

Leodnir Kisaka, 34: Orb General, Orb Military Chief of Staff

Murrue Ramius, 30: Orb Admiral (Ret.), private citizen

Mu La Flaga, 32: Orb Admiral (Ret.), private citizen

Meyrin Hawke, 19: Assistant to Lacus Clyne

Various Others

Note: One Kr'Shtc'rt "unit" is approximately equal to 100 kilometers.

* * *

**Prologue, C.E. 61**

The news came as a shock to the Kr'Shtc'rt council. They had hoped that the creatures of that system would never advance to that point, but, indeed, they had found and taken the fossil staged there. The removal of the bait had reactivated the long-range probe in stasis there, which had then completed a comprehensive scan of the system. The probe was old, placed there by the Kr'Shtc'rt over 4000 years before when they had first discovered life in that system. As such, its systems were somewhat outdated, though the Kr'Shtc'rt tended to make advancements very slowly, and its slip drive was rather slow, meaning it had left twenty-two years before.

Indeed, it hadn't even arrived at the capital yet. Rather, it had been detected and recognized by the sentry systems at one of the External Colonies, which had slip-commed the council about its presence. The council had looked up the system of origin for the probe, but all of the data available was ancient. Instead they would have to wait another twelve years for the probe to arrive and divulge its contents.

In time, the council felt more comfortable. It was impossible, after all, for the inhabitants of the planet to truly pose a threat. Indeed, they more than suspected that their battle fleet would only find primitive exploration in space, making the conquest all the easier. The Kr'Shtc'rt liked conquests to be easy. They weren't a cruel people, just very, very paranoid and fearful. But they had survived for tens of thousands of years because of that paranoia. They had made a systematic process of keeping an eye on many of the systems in their sector of the galaxy to make sure no species could reach space and become a threat. Occasionally, a species would slip through their immediate grasp and develop space-borne weapons, but none of them stood a chance against a full battle fleet.

Many had fought anyways. To the practical, fearful Kr'Shtc'rt, the options they gave, submit to eternal rule by and servitude to the Kr'Shtc'rt or face extermination, was an obvious choice, but other species seemed to think extermination was the better option. Whatever this new species choose to do, the Kr'Shtc'rt were prepared and had the resources to ensure they never became a threat.

* * *

**Present Day, C.E. 78**

"Cagalli! It is so good to see you again."

The short blond in a purple suit looked up from the arrival's lobby to see the person calling her.

"Lacus, I've just been too busy to visit frequently."

The two women embraced, and then pulled back to look at each other. It had been nearly a year since Cagalli Yula Athat, Representative of the United Emirates of Orb, had seen Lacus Clyne, Chairwoman of the PLANT Supreme Council. Gazing at the woman before her, Cagalli decided that Lacus looked better than ever. Her hair was still bright pink, made even more pronounced by her dress, black and purple in the colors of the Supreme Council. Though not a great deal taller than Cagalli, she was much more petite, with long legs which moved her with a practiced grace and ease, whether now, in a Council meeting, or many years ago while performing.

"You must come see Kira right away," said Lacus. "He is busy with an inspection, but he misses you."

Nodding her assent, Cagalli allowed herself to be lead to the nearby drop-tube for the long trip to the PLANT's ground.

* * *

"Well, Commander, everything appears to be in order. You are to be congratulated for your performance."

The commander stood at attention, a slight sheen of sweat beading on his forehead. A less informed individual might ask why an older and authoritative man would be so concerned about the presence of two young men barely out of their teens. But anyone educated in recent history would realize that Athrun Zala and Kira Yamato were far from the average young men. Both clad in white uniforms, with the distinctive FAITH badges on their chests, Kira stood back observing the displays on the command center's bulkhead while Athrun strode in front of the line of officers at attention.

"However, I would appreciate if you could keep your personnel in line a bit more."

Athrun's voice was entirely polite and in the tone of a simple request, but the commander seemed to come to attention again, despite already standing ramrod straight and stiff as a board. His palms clammed up as well as he remembered the… embarrassment. He had made it perfectly clear that two headquarters men were coming to inspect their facility, but apparently that notice had escaped the two petty officers who were found in their quarters in a… compromising position.

"Sir! My deepest apologies, sir! I can assure you that those two will be brought up on charges." He snapped out his response immediately.

Athrun turned from the officers to hide a slight grin.

"Oh, nothing quite so dramatic is needed, commander. I believe you can deal with this administratively, no?" he said, turning around again.

"Yes, sir! Understood, sir. Again, I offer my sincere apologies." The commander was beginning to sweat noticeably now.

"It is quite all right, commander. We do not blame you. And the excellent condition of your facility and units speaks to your credit," said Kira, entering the fray. "But I believe we've interrupted your day long enough. Gentlemen."

Athrun and Kira both turned and left the command center, turning a corner and stepping into a lift. Their faces were perfectly impassive, displaying nothing but serene command… until they lift doors closed and they exploded into laughter.

"My god, Athrun! He looked you he was expecting you to order him shot on the spot!" Kira was nearly doubled over.

Athrun made no response for he was howling in laughter. Fortunately, the lift had a long way to go, allowing the two officers to get their appearance back into order, though they continued to break out into chuckles.

Exiting the facility, they entered the open topped car parked in front of them. Without waiting for orders, the green uniformed driver immediately drove off towards the central trunk of the PLANT. They continued to intermittently chuckle until they had nearly reached the trunk, when Kira turned to Athrun.

"Are you going to greet Cagalli?"

"No." Athrun shook his head. "I promised Meyrin we would go out for lunch today. You know how hectic it's been lately and we haven't had a chance to do much together recently except sleep. Tell Cagalli I'll be by this afternoon."

Kira nodded and, as the car came to a stop, exited and went into the drop-tube bay. He gave a genial wave as Athrun drove off and walked into the restricted portion of the bay. The green on duty came to attention and saluted as Kira entered. Kira returned the salute and waited until a private pod was brought up for him. Entering and taking a seat, Kira could feel the typical quivering as the inertial dampening field spun up. When it reached its peak, the electromagnetic driver in the drop-tube wall fired, instantly accelerating the pod upwards. Within a second, Kira had entered the clear part of the tube, and gazed down on the PLANT spreading out below him.

At the center interchange, he pushed off through the microgravity and saluted the guards as he entered the pod bay on the opposite side. Another few moments in a pod and he was standing on the opposite end of the PLANT. A driver was already waiting for him and whisked him quickly off into the sub-city area occupied by the PLANT Supreme Council and the rest of the government.

Leaving the car, Kira traced familiar footsteps as he walked towards Lacus's office. Pausing outside the door to sraighten his already straight uniform and flick off a piece of imagined lint, Kira gave a crisp double knock on the door. Almost instantly he heard an "enter" from within and pressed the door control. With a hiss it slid open, and Kira saw Lacus seated behind her desk talking to his sister.

"Kira!"

Cagalli stood up quickly and crossed to embrace her brother.

"Ah, Cagalli, its been too long as always." Kira placed his hands on her shoulders as he pushed her back to get a good look at her.

"You know how crazy it's been trying to get the United Nations back up and running. Surely you must have felt that here, too?"

With a sardonic grin, Lacus nodded.

"It has been pretty… crazy here the past few months," she said, though not bitterly.

"Whatever it was, it's good to see you now." Kira pulled in his sister for another embrace and then they both sat down in front of Lacus. "Ah, and Athrun sends his regards but he can't come right now. He says he'll be by this afternoon."

"Oh? Good. I've got a bone to pick with him about those joint exercises. In fact, Leodnir had a few specific points to address, basically about-"

Cagalli was cut off as a black uniformed ZAFT officer burst into the room.

"Mistress Clyne! It's… There's… I-I don't know. You had better come with me to the command center right away!"

The officer seemed to be very confused and distressed, but Lacus calmly stood and followed him, closely tailed by Kira and Cagalli. The officers around them saluted as they entered the command center, but quickly returned to work. The officer of the watch walked quickly up to them as they entered.

"Mistress Clyne. We've just received this message. We don't know it's origin, but its direction of propagation, carrier frequency, and under-carrier waves all suggest it is legitimate. I… you-you have to see it for yourself." He turned and nodded to a waiting technician.

The main screen flashed to life before them as a bizarre sight came before them. On the screen was an odd creature, resembling a cephalopod and spider mixed together, with glinting hard legs attached to a gelatinous body with four noticeable eyes, featuring a prominent beak, surrounded by tentacles of different lengths. It began to speak in a carefully modulated, accentless voice, though clearly generated by the creature itself.

"_Inhabitants of this system. I am Rg'Tzk'Na Phool'Gh of the Kr'Shtc'rt. We have arrived with a choice: you may submit and become subjugates of the Kr'Shtc'rt Empire or you can be exterminated. Extermination will begin immediately upon any attack made on this force or if you do not begin the evacuation of all members of your species from space within fifteen hours of our arrival in your orbit from the system limit, which will occur itself in seventeen hours from your receipt of this message. This is your only warning. Comply immediately."_

The screen went black and Cagalli drew in a sharp breath. Lacus stood perfectly still, frowning but silent. Kira walked forward and placed a hand on her shoulder. She whipped around to look at him. She shuddered once and, holding Kira's hand, looked back at the officer of the watch.

"You believe this is genuine?"

"Yes, ma'am. As far as we can tell, this is real. But we won't have confirmation for a great deal of time. Our sensors, even active, are very short ranged." He looked as if he could have told her it was all a joke.

Lacus frowned again and looked at the floor. Shuffling her foot for a moment, she turned to look at Kira again, but spoke to the officer.

"Please call for the Supreme Council to be gathered immediately. And leave a special notice for Mr. Joule to place the military on Condition 1 standby."

The entire command center went silent. Condition 1 had not been issued since the last war. With a deep breath, the duty officer saluted and turned to relay orders. Lacus and Kira walked from the room, with Cagalli behind them.

"I think I'm going to return to Orb now," Cagalli said, already pulling out a com link. "I'll call ahead and leave immediately, but I want you to know that I empower you with the right to represent Orb in this instance and, if you need to, command military units."

Lacus nodded firmly and briefly let go of Kira to give her a fierce embrace. Kira embraced her as well before she set off at a run for the drop tubes. Kira and Lacus walked far more slowly to Lacus's office. Once the door closed behind them, Lacus turned to grab Kira and buried her face in his chest. He held her tightly as well, gently stroking her hair.

"Do you think we should resist?" Lacus said, her voice muffled through Kira's uniform.

Kira frowned.

"I… I think that we should at least talk to them first. It might be a misunderstanding." He didn't look like he believed that. "But, for myself, I would rather fight for my freedom and to protect this world, than become a slave."

Lacus looked up into his eyes as he smiled at her. He bent down and kissed her on the forehead.

"Lacus, whatever you decide to do, I promise that I will support you completely."

She nodded, closing her eyes briefly.

"I know. I believe in you. But I'm just worried that I'm making the wrong decision. That many people will die for no reason."

She pushed her head back into his chest again.

"Lacus, the people of PLANT and Orb at least will follow you. I believe the Atlantic Federation, at least, is too proud to submit, regardless of what others may do."

A soft chirp interrupted them, indicating an incoming call. Squeezing Lacus tight one last time, he let her slip out of his arms as she crossed to sit in her chair, accepting the call.

"_Mistress Clyne, the Supreme Council is assembled and Mr. Joule reports that Condition 1 has been set throughout ZAFT. Also, the UN Security Council has a link to conference with the Council."_

"Thank you, I will be there momentarily. Please let the Council know."

The comscreen died and Lacus stood again.

"I need to get to the council," she said, moving to hold his hands again.

"And I need to get to the squadron. Don't worry. I believe in you too." Kira squeezed her hands for a moment before they both left the office.

* * *

"… _I repeat: Unknown ships. I am Lacus Clyne, leader of the orbital colonies of Earth. I speak for the people of the colonies and the planet as well. We have no desire to fight but neither do we desire to become slaves. We, the peoples of Earth, ask you to open a dialogue. We worry that you may have misconstrued some action or message accidentally sent to your people, but we assure you that we intend no harm to anyone and wish only to live in peace. I repeat…"_

"Ha! Live in peace? With all of those warships? Very likely!" Though this would have been spoken in a superior and scorning tone by other species, the best the Kr'Shtc'rt could do was a slightly less fearful tone.

Rg'Tzk'Na Phool'Gh turned towards the speaker, a prince, the son of a councilman, come on his first expedition.

"Yes, my lord. Yet remember that we Kr'Shtc'rt maintain peace and safety through maintenance of arms as well."

The prince turned a slight shade of green, indicating his mixed embarrassment and stubbornness at that point.

"True, but we will not listen to them, will we?"

Rg'Tzk'Na Phool'Gh turned somewhat pale himself, the Kr'Shtc'rt equivalent of a sigh.

"Yes. We have standing orders, though I feel that at least some of these species are likely sincere. But no matter. We have our orders, and these… humans have their options. It will not make a difference regardless of how many warships they have."

But in truth, he was already worried. This was not just the incessant paranoia and fear of his people but genuine concern for the situation. The probe had taken scans only 49 years before, but there was none of this orbital infrastructure or military. Based on their experience with rates of advancement, the council had decided that only a single scout squadron was needed. Consisting of one battlecruiser and two escorting destroyers, the Kr'Shtc'rt task force would have been able to swat aside any of the opposing vessels, indeed, it could have defeated most groups of those vessels. But the sheer number of ships swarming out from the orbital colonies was astounding and even more ships appeared to be moving in from lower orbits and the main planet's moon.

None of the local ships used gravity drives, so the only FTL sensors, the gravitonics, couldn't register any of them. It was only now, as they passed through the orbit of the fifth planet of the system, that their sensors could detect the massed ships. If the ships had been detected earlier, Rg'Tzk'Na Phool'Gh might have chosen a different course or decided to run altogether to retrieve a larger force. But he hadn't known and thus went for a least time insertion into orbit, riding his battlecruiser's maximum acceleration of 660 gravities to turn over. He now saw only two options: continue at max deceleration and hope he wasn't engaged while in orbit and then set out for the slip-drive limit or turn again and begin accelerating past the planet, trying to escape as quickly as he could.

Rg'Tzk'Na Phool'Gh's pink coloring would have been a frown on a human, and it was well warranted. On the one claw, accelerating again would get him through the human's engagement window more quickly, though not much more, with all of the vee he had already dumped decelerating from the limit. However, he would have to cross the entirety of the system's ecliptic. The gravitic nature of the system meant that the slip-drive limits "above" and "below" the ecliptic would be much closer than reaching the limit on the far side of the system.

"Continue on present heading with present acceleration. Begin a three hour watch rotation. Get them null-gee time and a protein infusion. After three hours, bring us to Yellow Alert and Red Alert one hour after that."

His commands were immediately accepted by his officers and he sat back in his null gee tank. It was smaller than the one he used as a bunk, but it made watch time so much more tolerable.

* * *

"Well it doesn't seem like they're going to respond," said Athrun, nearly four hours later. 

Kira nodded, looking concerned. The two of them stood on the bridge of the _Lightning_, a new mobile suite carrier/cruiser, unveiled only a year earlier. It was heavily armed and fast, though with few mobile suits, only four. The product of modern situations, it was designed to suppress piracy and terrorism not engage in large battles against scores of mobile suits. However, it was also built from the ground up as a command and control ship, and so Athrun and Kira had chosen it as their base of operations. Both of them had spent a long time pondering the holo-chart table before them, but no epiphanies had reached them.

"Sir! Contacts! Bearing 306 mark 025. We have two, no, three large heat sources. Data is refining now. Radar returns show one large ship flanked by two smaller ships, approximately a third of the size of the larger ship."

Now Athrun joined Kira in frowning as the Combat Information Center threw the new data up onto the chart before them. A tab next to the three new red light codes displayed their velocity and acceleration. Their absolute acceleration was astounding, though of course it's relative acceleration was nowhere near so. The velocity was steadily dropping off. Kira made a small noise and turned to the com unit on the table.

"CIC, can you put a projected location where they will achieve zero relative vee?"

The holo flickered again as a new line, dotted and blinking to indicate a changing projection, led from the red light codes to a point some 300,000 kilometers from Earth. Kira frowned again and checked the numbers of their acceleration.

_It's very odd, _he thought._Why would they move towards a place like that? And why, with 660 gravities of acceleration to play with?_

"CIC, I want an analysis: based on the first message, give me a rough estimate of their first location. Then, given their current location, the fact that they gave a timeline of arrival, and their current acceleration, I want a rough location of turn over."

The holo died altogether this time before reappearing on a much smaller scale, displaying much of the entire solar system. Kira frowned as he saw the data for the projected turn over point, and the fact that the enemies had probably maintained what they assumed was their max acceleration the entire time. He had one final question however.

"CIC, based on turn over and velocity estimates, can we say that they were moving towards their current rest destination the whole time?"

The com was silent for a moment before the CIC officer of the watch came on.

"I'm afraid that's not the case, Commander Yamato. We're refining the data now, but it appears that, given estimated max velocity and vector information, they only started towards their new heading somewhere around… Jupiter. Their extreme velocity at turn over means that even now they are being forced toward earth, but if you look at the projected travel path, now updated with acceleration lines," the holo tank updated with lines pointing off the dotted line, "they are moving in a curve, clearly fighting their carry-threw velocity."

Kira nodded, but Athrun only looked confused.

"Maybe this makes sense to you, Kira, but I have no idea what is going on."

Kira contemplated the holo for another moment, still silent.

"CIC, return holo to default scale," he said as the tank flickered again. "Okay, Athrun, here's how I read it. If they really are from some kind of interstellar empire, then it only makes sense for them to have some kind of Faster Than Light drive system, or it just wouldn't be feasible. Now, that thing talked about a 'system limit.' Mind you this is all conjecture, but it explains their current behavior. I'm going to have to make some pretty big guesses."

"Okay, that's fine," said Athrun, recognizing his friend's reluctance in the face of such limited data.

"Basically, I'm postulating that their FTL system doesn't work within a certain distance from the system. If we assume they sent their message off as soon as they arrived, we can roughly guess at the limit's location. Now, my next guess is based on their current behavior. Obviously they knew something was up here, as they sent military units, but there are so few of them, even if they are technologically superior. I think they did not expect our current military status. As it was, they came into the system with bad data and decided to blow in on a least time course. However, it appears they came into sensor range near Jupiter. At that point, I believe they realized the nature of our forces, as they immediately altered their acceleration profile. But now I'm going to be guessing again. I think what we're looking at is a tactical decision. With their original course, they were going to come to a stop relative to the Earth very near the moon, so just about as far from the Earth as they will now. The only difference is that they'll travel a little farther insystem on the new heading, but look what it does. It puts them closer, albeit not much, to exiting the system more quickly. My guess is they are going to try to break perpendicular to the ecliptic, and I would think it's because of the limit they were talking about. If it's related to gravity, it would be oblong, with it's major axis along the ecliptic, in the plane of all of the planets."

Athrun's jaw nearly dropped as his friend kept on coming out with new conjecture. Now that he had finally stopped, Athrun shook his head and stared at the chart from which his friend had divined all of this.

"Kira, I'm going to be honest: I still have absolutely no idea what you are talking about."

Kira couldn't help but grin at his friend, who gave him a grumpy look in return.

"Look; what it means is that they are still going to come through our lines, but it looks like they aren't planning to stay now. Also, they are going to come to a relative stop for a short time near Earth. So we need to shift our lines a little bit so their path carries them directly through it. Also, we should stage some ships on the opposite side of the Earth to ambush them."

That Athrun could understand and the snap of command was plain in his voice as he laid out his orders for their repositioning.

* * *

"_Will we have to start it?"_

Gazing out from the com screen, Lacus looked very worried and deeply saddened. Athrun gave a resigned nod.

"From their present behavior, it looks like they wont take aggressive action if we don't act first. And we should hit them with everything we can right away."

Lacus still didn't look convinced.

_"Couldn't we just let them leave?"_

Kira stepped forward into the pickup.

"No, Lacus. We have this opportunity because they didn't know what they would be dealing with. But they will be back, with more ships, if we let them get away now. Please, Lacus, we need your permission. I promise you that this is the right decision."

Lacus looked saddened and it tore at Kira's heart to say those things to her.

_"I understand, but I hate being responsible for another war."_

"We all do, Lacus, but it is the only choice," said Athrun, with the force of his experiences behind it.

Lacus nodded.

"_Very well. You have my permission. Good luck. Come back to us."_

With one final look at them all, the com screen blanked. Athrun turned to the ship's skipper.

"General signal to all ships: Launch mobile suits. Standby for attack orders."

The skipper nodded and sent out the message, but Kira only had eyes for the steadily closing light codes. Within moments, they would be in visual range… and weapons range.

* * *

The air on the bridge was tense. The prince flicked his tentacles incessantly, almost tempting Rg'Tzk'Na Phool'Gh to have him kicked off the bridge, but he realized it was just stress. The number of ships in range to intercept him was as bad as he had guessed and the small targets now separating from the larger ships worried him even more. A noise from the prince caused him to turn, 

"Yes?" he asked the nervous youngster.

"Why don't we wipe them out now? We are in range."

Rg'Tzk'Na Phool'Gh flicked his longer tentacles in negation.

"No. Our orders are that we can only engage in self defense and the firing control computers won't release control until we are engaged."

The prince looked upset, turning a variety of colors in quick succession, but Rg'Tzk'Na Phool'Gh really couldn't have cared less. His whole being was focused on the ships before him.

* * *

Athrun picked up the boom mic and flipped the transmit switch to on, 

"ZAFT Michael and Ganul teams, engage with UN 34th Autonomous Mobile Wing on your flank. Weapons free and God speed."

He turned to Kira and shared with him a look of despair a sadness only borne from a lifetime's worth of death and violence in two wars. But the moment passed and they looked into the holo chart, watching the 42 small green lights flash towards the approaching ships.

* * *

The range ticker counted down on the cockpit HUD of Commander Michael's GOUF Ignited. He would be crossing the threshold to weapons range in 15 seconds and he performed a last check of his weapons. He was going in heavy, with four capital ship-killer missiles and a 210 cm beam cannon and all of his people had some variation on that theme. He would be the first to fire, but all 41 mobile suits accompanying him would fire immediately after him. 

The range distance-to-fire flashed down to zero and he took a big breath. Letting it slowly out, he sqeezed the firing stud.

* * *

Rg'Tzk'Na Phool'Gh had been waiting for this moment. 

"Shields up! Return fire!"

The shield generators held at immediate standby for the past hour suddenly jumped, producing the distinct battle screen that surrounded the ship with a faint glow. The weapons, fully crewed and locked onto targets, began spitting out death in missiles and energy beams. The annoying, smaller ships died first, but his guns were soon turned on the larger, parent ships.

* * *

Athrun stifled a curse as the sensors showed first no effect from their weapons, and then the loss of the mobile suits, followed quickly by ever-mounting numbers of ships. Soon, the enemies would pass into the midst of the other forces, but for now, ZAFT forces were taking the brunt of the casualties. 

Suddenly Kira lunged forward and took the boom mic from his hand.

"All ships with positron cannon! Fire on the escorting ship on the port side of the main ship! They have some kind of shielding but we'll blast through it. Fire at will."

Athrun immediately understood and ordered the captain of their ship, which was itself outfitted with a positron cannon, to fire.

* * *

"Damn these humans!" said Rg'Tzk'Na Phool'Gh at the loss of one of his escorting destroyers. 

Such words would have been shouted angrily by a human, but Rg'Tzk'Na Phool'Gh could only whisper in fear. He hadn't expected them to have such heavy beam weapons, but they had had them and the lighter shields of the destroyer couldn't withstand the impacts of scores of hits. His own battle cruiser would fair better, but it couldn't last indefinitely.

Fortunately for him, however, it appeared he would be exiting their lines shortly and it appeared the human ships neither had the weapons range nor the acceleration to continue engaging him for long.

"Move the ship to cover the remaining escort!" he ordered.

In another fifteen minutes he would be out of their range and on his way home.

* * *

Kira and Athrun watched the range grow in the holo until the last of their ships was no longer in range. Then Kira picked up the mic and triggered a laser communication to a stealthed relay system. 

"Orb units, the enemy is coming your way. Focus positron fire on them to wear down their shields and then pound them to scrap. Good luck."

He signed off, looking sad. The holo tank before them still showed many green symbols, but far too many were yellow – damaged – or black - dead.

* * *

Rg'Tzk'Na Phool'Gh relaxed as his forces slipped further from the enemy. That had been entirely to close for his comfort but he had made it away. Closing his secondary eyes for a moment, he settled back into his null gee tank a little further. 

"Sir! A gravitic contact on the limit! I cannot identify class or affiliation yet."

Rg'Tzk'Na Phool'Gh sat up straight again.

_Who could this be? _he thought._Raiders? Survey ships? Oh… shit… I hope its not a—_

His thoughts were cut off when his remaining escort's shields flared, died, and then disappeared from the universe as the destroyer exploded.

* * *

"Good hits!" cried Leodnir Kisaka, leading the Orb forces. "Do it again!" 

The Orb ships wheeled, turning their main guns on the larger enemy ship, but its shields were far tougher. And his ships began falling off as well as the enemy began shooting back again.

They chased the enemy for twenty minutes, but it was simply too big and too powerful, as its brute acceleration finally pulled it out of range.

* * *

_Finally!_ though Rg'Tzk'Na Phool'Gh in relief. He hadn't had any idea that the humans would lay an ambush. _They have some excellent leaders, if they could figure out to do that with such primative technology. And two destroyers are the greatest losses we've ever had with this kind of endeavor. I hope these humans realize the compliment when we finally get our entire battle fleets moving to wipe them out. They are entirely too much like the Imperials. _His revere was broken by a warning tone. 

"Sir! The gravitic contact is back! Bearing 007 mark 289 at 10,000 units! Its an Imperial ship!"

"… Shit!"

* * *

"Scan resolution set. Target acquired. 

"Fire!" Commander Iton Karmte said from his command chair. The Imperial scout ship shuddered briefly as the heavy missiles flew out from the five launch tubes on the port broadside. A moment later, after completing a roll, the tubes on the starboard broadside fired.

"Secure from firing stations and prepare for jump," said Iton, watching the distance numbers descend on his tactical repeater.

* * *

"Evasive action! Shields up! Return fire!" said Rg'Tzk'Na Phool'Gh, cowering in his null gee chair. 

"Five seconds to impact," said the tactical officer.

Rg'Tzk'Na Phool'Gh turned white as the missiles flashed in with the impossible speeds to be expected of Imperials. Then the missiles detonated. The heavy beams in each one, pumped by incredibly powerful reactions, shot straight at the battlecruiser. A two missed entirely and four more, hitting at angles, were deflected away. The shield took the brunt of three more direct hits before failing, but there was still one left, and it slammed into the battlecruiser, killing its drive systems.

* * *

"Execute jump!" said Iton just as the scans registered the missile hits. 

The ship's jump generators spun up and for a moment it disappeared.

* * *

"All hands prepare for beam action!" cried Rg'Tzk'Na Phool'Gh as the Imperial ship disappeared. 

His tentacles darted forward to his control panel, attempting to get some control over his weapons form the failing targeting systems. Main maneuvering was out too, but the emergency reaction jets along the hull flared, struggling to respond to Rg'Tzk'Na Phool'Gh's commands. All he could do was minimize the damage and hopefully get a shot off. But he knew it was hopeless, and cursed the day he had left his nice, safe egg.

* * *

The Imperial ship flashed back into existence, a mere 20,000 kilometers from the damaged battlecruiser. Normally, the ship would wait for its scan data to clear, but the jump, and proximity, had been set up intentionally. In literally a second, it had run out the eight heavy beam mounts on the port broadside and fired blind, straight ahead. Rg'Tzk'Na Phool'Gh's final maneuvers meant that one of the beams missed entirely, but the other seven hit the wounded warship directly. Though the beams, traveling at the speed of light, took an imperceptible amount of time to hit the target, it took five seconds for the Imperial ship to detect any change in the battlecruiser. When scan finally did pick up something, it showed plasma boiling out of the holes in its hull as the power conduit systems overloaded from the hits. A moment later, the backed up flow hit the main fusion reactor and it let go, obliterating the warship in a blinding flash of light.

* * *

"Holy…" said Athrun, swallowing a curse. Their sensors didn't have great range, but it had shown the hits on the final enemy ship, its cessation of maneuvers, and the impossible, instantaneous appearance of the new ship right next to the enemy. Sensors weren't necessary to see the warship's destruction. The fusion driven funeral pyre of the battlecruiser was huge and, having happened only a few hundred thousand kilometers from the fleet, easily visible two seconds later. 

"Sir! The contact just disappeared again."

"Battle stations!" shouted Athrun while Kira continued to watch the display silently. "Alert all ships! Clear for action."

"Aye aye, sir."

"Sir, we have a contact holding 300 kilometers off our port bow."

"Sir, CIC reports that it matches the heat profile of the second ship."

"Understood, lock on weapons, but hold your fire." Athrun didn't want to fight another incredible enemy.

"Sir, incoming message."

"Put it onscreen," said Kira. "And patch it to PLANT."

The main viewer at the front of the bridge flashed to life again. This time, a short man in a space black uniform with silver piping sat looking at them. He had vaguely Asian features, but they were subtlety wrong, including his strikingly green eyes.

"_Colonists, this is Commander Iton Karmte of the I.S.S. Do you require further assistance?" _he said in faintly accented English.

"This is Athrun Zala of ZAFT. We… well… what in God's name is the I.S.S.?"

The man on the screen looked puzzled for a moment. He leaned off screen apparently talking with someone else. Then he looked back and spoke.

"_What is the date of your colonial register?"_ he asked.

"What?" said Athrun.

"_Hmm… I see. If you will, I would like to meet with your leaders. I promise that we intend no harm. Do you have any requirements for the meeting?"_ said the commander.

"_Please come to the PLANTs, the orbital colonies. We will have beacons to mark your path," _said Lacus, as another screen popped up, showing that she had entered the conversation.

The screen went black as the transmissions ended. Kira and Athrun looked at each other for a moment before shrugging and turning back to the maneuvering table. The ship's engines fired up and it spun, setting out on a heading for the PLANTs.


End file.
